Bryant Returns to the Court

Upon returning to Los Angeles from a family trip to Europe, Kobe Bryant took the practice court at the team's facility at 7 a.m. for a two-hour basketball work out on Monday morning. According to team spokesman John Black, Bryant has "no restrictions other than what his body would limit him to do." The 18-year veteran can shoot, run and jump to whatever extent he so chooses.

Bryant has now fully recovered from his initial injury, a fracture of the lateral tibial plateau of his left knee that occurred on Dec. 17 at Memphis when he hyperextended the knee. That came just six games into his return from a repair of his left Achilles tendon in the spring of 2013.

Bryant was initially given a timetable of six weeks, but his knee did not heal as quickly as had been hoped, and he was declared out for the season on March 12.

“With Kobe’s injury still not healed, the amount of time he’d need to rehab and be ready to play, and the amount of time remaining in the season, we’ve simply run out of time for him to return,” said Athletic Trainer Gary Vitti at the time. “However, Kobe will have the entire offseason to heal, rehab and prepare, and we look forward to him being 100% for the start of next season.”

Bryant went through his Monday morning work out with teammate Wesley Johnson, plus the aid of some of the team's staffers on the basketball side.